We Need More Mexicans!

Southern California has a lot more people than it did when I was a boy and even then most people here came from somewhere else. Then, most of the newcomers came from other States. Now it seems like more of them come from other countries. We have been getting people from the Middle East ever since the partition of Palestine in 1947. We got a lot more after the Shah was kicked out of Iran. They're not all Islamic. There's a lot of Iranian Jews, Baha'i and Zoroastrians. There are Armenian Orthodox, Maronites from Lebanon, Coptics from Egypt and East Africa. We get quite a few Orthodox Jews who like to come here from Israel. After the Iron Curtain came down, we got a lot of Eastern Europeans. After Yugoslavia fell apart, we got a lot of people from the Adriatic. After Saigon fell in '75, we got a shitload of South East Asians and they're still coming. We got a lot of Koreans. We have Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Mainland. We have a lot of Indians and Pakistanis, they may be enemies at home but they don't mind living together here. We have whites forced out of Southern Africa and blacks forced out of West Africa. We have Cubans by way of Miami and Russians by way of Coney Island. You ask them, they'll tell you they're legal. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren't. The truth is that when most of them left their old homes there wasn't time to do the paperwork, there was only time to get out. I don't doubt that for a minute.

It's hard adapting to a new culture, learning a new language, a new way of life. It's easier here, where so many others have also recently come but it's still hard. People tend to stay clannish. They like to live in the same neighborhoods. They like to go to markets that have the foods from home. They like to talk their own language and hear it spoken. Can you really blame'em. In the end, it all works out. Their kids all end up going to UC, become doctors, lawyers and engineers, fall in love and marry each other. Good for them, good for us. Summertime picnics with the family end up having chapatis, kimchee and babaganuch, all on the same table, YUM!

So why is everybody always whining about Hispanics. Mexicans and Central Americans have been coming North for centuries. They want a little house. Plant a garden and a few fruit trees. Drink a little beer. Raise their families. They're willing to work about eighteen hours a day for the privilege, are you? They work in restaurants and stores. They do landscaping and gardening. They work on farms and ranches. They work in hospitals and nursing homes. They do masonry, electrical and plumbing. They do things that people need done at a price they can afford. That's not something you can say about all of our other new arrivals. Seems to me, what we need in this country today is more Mexicans and fewer people sitting around on their fat asses whining about them.

Tommy Tancredo, Bite Me!